'Hardcore Pawn's' foodie Ashley Broad goes gluten-free

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People often walk into American Jewelry & Loan, the Detroit pawnshop her family owns, with unrealistic expectations, such as mistaking cubic zirconia for diamonds, and end up leaving no richer than when they entered.

As viewers of the show, now in its eighth season, have learned, Broad loves to cook, and she buys kitchenware for the store. Even mundane cooking items, however, are not immune to the strangeness that can enter a pawnshop’s door.

“People bring in cooking things sometimes,” she tells Zap2it. “In one particular episode, someone brought in a rotisserie oven — and brought it in with a raw chicken. Unfortunately, the food and health department would not allow us to take it.”

She does, though, buy pots, pans and cookware — when they are devoid of poultry.

Her favorite items are “grills. I love grills,” she says. “I love different types of china. I love cutlery. I love antique silver. What a lot of people don’t understand is they have silver hidden in their house, and they don’t know it. I tell people, ‘Check in your drawers. You do not know what’s there.’ “

Like all working moms, Broad, a mother of two, has a tight schedule.

“Here is my routine,” she says. “I work five to six days a week. I prepare all my meals on Sundays. I don’t believe my kids should be eating out all week; once a week is fine. I marinate and freeze them. I take them out, and when I come home, I throw on the grill or oven. I don’t fry any of my food. I grill or put it in the oven.”

After suffering from migraines since age 12, Broad went gluten-free over the past year.

“I tried everything — pills, acupuncture, every type of medication to try to get rid of migraines,” she says.

“I eliminated rye, oats, barley and wheat from my diet,” she says. “You would think that is just bread, but gluten is in the littlest thing, such as soy sauce. Wheat is in soy sauce.

“At this point I have done all my research,” she says. “I cleared out my pantry, my fridge and freezer. Everything is gluten-free.”

What are you currently reading?“I am currently reading ‘Gone Girl’ [by Gillian Flynn].”

What did you have for dinner last night?“Chicken. I marinated a whole chicken, cut up in a bag with balsamic vinegar, Dijon mustard, in a baggie and marinated for five hours. I added olive oil, salt and pepper. I put in the oven and it baked. We had beans for a vegetable and gluten-free pasta.”

What is your next project?“Attending more and more jewelry shows.”

When was the last vacation you took — where and why?“I was in New York, it was a [public relations] trip for the show.”